Intelligence reports
by magkiln
Summary: A collection of in-universe reports regarding technical details for the story: Someone has heard them scream and sequels.
1. STG report: Rapid Deployment Vessels

**I do not own any of these franchises**

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The following chapters will contain background information, disguished as in-universe reports, messages, etc., regarding the fictional universe that I put together for my Alien x Mass Effect story Someone has heard them scream and its sequel Someone had blundered. Originally it was my intention to insert these things into the main body of the text, but I find that it takes too much exposition and would slow down the story. On occasion, I also use this format to explain an issue that has been rasied in a reviewe. Reading this will not be necessary to understand the actual story, but it may help the reader visualize things the way I had it in my mind while writing.

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**STG INTERNAL REPORT**

**SECURITY CLASSIFICATION**: Low

**Subject:** Rapid Deployment Vessel

**Author:** Senior analyst Kirrahe, STG

**Sources:** The following report has been compiled based on data obtained from turian Hierarchy internal reports (sources xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) following the Relay 314 incident, and eye-witness testimony of STG agent xxxxxxxxxxxxx aboard the council survey vessel Light of Dawn. The author notes the existence of extensive data on military vehicles freely available in human media. However, such data has not been included in this report and will not be considered until such time as its reliability can be verified through independent means.

**Motivation: **To clarify the nature and capability of the human designed warships in the category Rapid Deployment Vessel (Hereafter RDV)

**Design: **The size of the RDV, as deduced from comparative measurements, classifies it as a cruiser by citadel standards. The RDV follows the basic design concept prevalent among human vessels. It is has an elongated hull with multiple (4) engine pods mounted at the rear. FTL is achieved through an Element Zero core. (**authors note:** While this information would seem superfluous, the reader should take into account the existence of the hyperdrive tachyon shunt, which provided humans with FTL capability before the discovery of element zero technology.)

**Armament: **The RDV is equipped with four short mass-drives mounted in two traversable turrets (2x2), one at the front of the ship and one placed amidships, between the main hull and the engine section. Defensive armament consists of four GUARDIAN laser systems: Two on each side of the hull. In addition, a large pod is mounted on each side of the hull parallel to the aft third of the ship. These pods were initially identified as mass driver cannon by agent xxxxxxxxxxxxx aboard Light of Dawn. After-action reports from the Hierarchy show clearly that this assumption is in error and identify the pods as missile launchers.

** Passive defense: **As is typical for human-designed vessels, the RDV is only weakly shielded (most likely due to technological limitations.) Impact from mass driver projectiles show that this is partially compensated by heavy armour. Close inspection of impact points indicate that at least part of the armour is ablative in nature, being attached to the outside of the actual hull and designed for rapid replacement.

**The controversy: **Initial turian reports describe these vessels as: 'A cruiser with the armament of a fregat'. Although technically correct, this classification fails to acknowledge the purpose of the design of the RDV. The armament of this ship is indeed light compared to its size as it lacks a spinal mass driver cannon. The turret mounted mass drivers, though rapid-firing are short, and therefore relatively low-powered, being comparable to the broadside armament typically found in cruisers. However, the author wishes to emphasize that this is NOT as originally assumed due to the inability to produce a sufficiently powerful weapon, but instead reflects a fundamentally different design philosophy:  
Unlike the warships typically found among the citadel races, the RDV's primary task is not to engage in ship-ship combat, but to serve as a troop transport. Although it may seem improbable that any military would commit a considerable fraction of its resources to the production of such vessels, the author would argue that this is in fact a logical result from the history of the human species, which, until recently, was effectively alone in the galaxy. It seems probable that, without an external enemy, the humans simply felt no need for strong anti-ship armament as space-combat would primarily take the form of law-enforcement (anti-smuggling and anti-piracy) tasks. Under these circumstances, the focus of human militray effort would almost inevitably have shifted to the deployment of ground troops, which would bear the brunt of the kind of low-intensity armed conflict one could expect to occur. To fascillitate suc operations, the RDV is equipped with six independent shuttle doors (three on each side) in the lower part of the forward secion of the hull. Shuttles are deployed from these doors at the end of a beam that extends from the hull. Once clear of the hull, the shuttle disconnects. (The reasons for this method of deployment, as opposed to taking off from inside the shuttlebay, are currently unknown.) Type and number of shuttles seem to vary between ships, most likely dependent on the mission profile (See Appendix).  
While unusal in its concept, the RDV provides the United Systems Military with the abilty to quickly deploy a small (estimated 20-50) infantry unit to a trouble spot. The ship itself has the abilty to fight through light resistance in space and provides limited orbital bombartment capability. By combining these traits in a single vessel, the United Systems Military has created an extremely flexible platform that can perform a large number of tasks independently. This reduces response time, because the vessel can deploy directly without having to wait for support to be brought up. It also reduces the number of hulls necessary to perform a given task. Although inherently limited by what is ultimately a compromise design, a vessel such as this can be used to perform a wide range of tasks, varying from patrol duties and anti-piracy actions to special forces deployment and contributing to large scale orbital assaults as was demonstrated at Shanxi.

**Recommendation: **The author strongly recommends further study of the RDV design concept, pending review for possible implementation in STG

**Appendix: Shuttlecraft**

So far, three different type of shuttle have been observed deploying from RDV type vessels.

1) The standard** UT-47 Kodiak** class shuttle. This is an unarmed, general purpose, shuttlecraft. The capabilities of this vehicle are well know from its civilian variants, which seem to dominate the human short-range shuttle market.

2) The **DR-4 Viking** dropship. Larger than the Khodiak, this seems to be the primary troop transport and landing craft of the United Systems Military. These shuttles landed the majority of the troops deployed at Shanxi and carried out the boarding action observed by the Light of Dawn. It should be noted that the vehicles deployed in these two actions displayed significant differences. At Shanxi, Hierarchi soldiers observed that the Vikings landed, after which a large ramp at the front of the shuttle dropped down to off-load either infantry or vehicles. During the boarding action, two Viking shuttles used docking collars to attach to the airlocks of a larger ship. The fundamental difference in operation of these two tasks seem to indicate that there at least two variants of this vehicle. Alternatively, it may be of modular design. Viking shuttles appear to be armed with cannon, but lack missiles.

3) The** UD-4Y Super-Cheyenne** type dropship. Unlike the two previous entries, the Super-Cheyenne appears to be designed almost exclusively for operations inside an atmosphere with only limited space-travel capability. It has proven to be heavily armed, including a nose mounted cannon and both air-to-ground and air-to-air missiles. In addition to landing troops on a planetary surface the Super-Cheyenne performs close air-support for ground troops in a manner similar to a gunship.

**Note:** Larger shuttlecraft, capable of landing heavy vehicles were observed at Shanxi. However, size comparisons seem to indicate that they can not be deployed from the RDV.

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****As I already stated in Someone has heard them scream, t**his entry was heavily influence by Starship Troopers (1997). The RDV is basically a smaller version of the Roger Young, adapted for the ME universe. The DR-4 Viking is from the same source. The Super-Cheyenne is basically a further development of the Cheyenne dropship from Aliens. ****The Kodiak shuttle is of course the standard shuttle from Mass Effect.  
The Kirrahe that wrote this report is not the captain Kirrahe from ME and ME3. Considering the typical Salarian lifespan, that Kirrahe has barely been born at the time of the First Contact War. I just figure that STG service runs in the family.**


	2. Private message: human FTL travel

**I do not own any of these franchises**

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**FROM: [[SENDER UNKNOWN]]**

**TO: PROFESSOR MERINI LUNOS, UNIVERSITY OF THESSIA**

Dear Professor,

Your request for information regarding human methods of faster than light (FTL) travel was forwarded to me by a mutual acquaintance at a local university. Although this subject is still undergoing study at STG, and therefore classified, I am authorized to inform you of the following:  
It is correct that two separate methods of FTL propulsion have been observed in human vessels.

The first is the well-known element zero core, similar to the drive-systems used by all known species.  
The second seems to be based on a so called _tachyon shunt_. This phenomenon, while known in theory to our scientists, has to our knowledge never been translated into a working FTL drive by any of the citadel species. The reason seems to be that theoretical models all show a markedly inferior performance compared to element zero based FTL propulsion, the maximum obtainable speed being less than 1 lightyear per day even while operating 100 efficiency. Therefore no-one has been willing to invest the massive amount of funding required to produce a working prototype.  
We are currently unsure as to why the humans decided to go ahead with this concept. The most likely explanation seems to be a lack of element zero technology during early space exploration. This would have left them without an acceptable alternative (My colleagues in the biology department inform me that humans are too short-lived to make sub-light space travel in any way practical.)

I regret to inform you that it seems unlikely that this study will be pursued for much longer in light of the lack of practical application of what is clearly obsolete technology. For further information I would suggest a direct approach to the humans themselves, once relationships have normalized following the unpleasantness at Relay 314. I feel sure that the use of such a slow method of interstellar propulsion, and its implications for social development, will prove a fascinating study for historians and sociologists. However, that falls outside my field of expertise.

I hope to have informed you sufficiently.

With best regards,

[[Message unsigned]]

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**Alright, that clears that part up. I based the performance figure on what is quoted for the Sulaco (Aliens). I chose this approach, rather than a more technical looking report to avoid the need for technobabble. It seems a bit unlikely, that none of the citadel races would ever build such a ship, even though it is slow compared to eezo cores. plain old curiosity would drive people to try it. Still, it would depend on just how expensive such a project would be. For example, it is theoretically possible to propel an airplane using a nuclear reactor. In fact, a B-36 bomber has flown with a reactor on board to test whether it could be safely operated in an airplane. Still, no nuclear-powered plane has ever been flown, because it is too impractical. In any case, it seemed more logical that the citadel races new about the concept but decided to go with the eezo option, than that humanity had somehow stumbled on something that nobody else had ever thought of.  
**


	3. Private message Re: human FTL travel

**I do not own any of these franchises**

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**FROM: PROFESSOR MERINI LUNOS, UNIVERSITY OF THESSIA**

**TO: [[SENDER UNKNOWN]]**

Dear xxxxxxxxxx,

Thank you for the information. At your suggestion I contacted one of the major manufacturing companies of human space ships in order to obtain further information on their homegrown Faster then Light propulsion system. I am sending you this message through our mutual acquaintance at the university in the hope that you will find te enclosed information of interest.

My initial request was met with considerable suspicion. An unfortunate result of the altercations around Relay 314, which, I fear, will continue to haunt us for the forseeable future. Nevertheless, I persevered and eventually managed to open a dialogue. I'm happy to say that humans appear as susceptible to the possibility of future profits, as well as certain other inducements, as any other species. So far I have managed to confirm the following: As you had already suggested, the human pursuit of FTL travel was initially hampered by a complete lack of element zero technology. This left the development of a working Tachyon Shunt Drive (TSD) as the only viable option. Apparently humans used this means of propulsion for several generations, despite its limitations before making the switch to element zero based technology.  
Despite my best efforts, I have been unable to find any leads as to how they discovered element zero and its applications. It simply "appears" approximately two human generations ago. Personally, I find this highly suspicious. The humans have so far denied the presence of ANY prothean ruins within their territory, but I can think of no other explanation. The development of element zero drive cores was simply too abrupt to be a natural development.

According to my human sources, TSDs are still being produced and research and development continues, albeit at a somewhat desultory pace. Upon inquiry, the humans told me, that the great advantage of TSD lies in its ability to scale up to ever larger ships. In fact, there appears to be no theoretical limit to the size of such vessels. (One human boasted that it would be possible to design a TSD for the citadel and briefly propel it at FTL speeds, simply by building a sufficiently large number of nuclear fusion reactors and using hydrogen from the Presidium lake as fuel. He had actually done the necessary calculations to prove it and his numbers seemed to check out.)  
In any case, it is for this reason that humans still employ the TSD. Apparently, there are economic advantages to building extremely large, albeit slow ships for certain transport duties, such as ore-carriers and colonisation ships that can carry an entire colony's worth of prefab housing and equipment.  
This brings me to the major disadvantage: low speeds. Even the fastest TSD vessels are more than a factor 10 slower than comparable ships with an element zero core. As you speculated, this has led to some fascinating social and technological developments. Human crews and passengers would spend their journeys, which would often take months, in suspended animation (so called hybernation chambers) while the ship was being controlled by computers (No AI I am glad to say. In fact most humans seem to think that I am joking when I even mention the possibility.)  
Part of this speed disadvantage is off-set by the fact that a TSD does not need to discharge on a regular basis, allowing for very long, uninterrupted voyages. Still, this does not outweigh the major speed disadvantage for other purposes than the large scale transport duties I mentioned earlier. In particular, military service. Apparently, humans have completely abandoned the TSD for any kind of warship, despite the fact that it would, in theory allow them to build bigger ships than any of our races can even envision. As one human put it: 'There is no point in building the biggest warship in the galaxy if the war is over before it reaches its target.

Although further study is warranted to verify my preliminary conclusions, I believe that this clarifies a great deal. I have spoken to several of my colleagues in the economy department and they have agreed to investigate the human claims of the economic feasibility of large, slow cargo vessels. If the human numbers are correct, it could give them a considerable advantage and we may need to either obtain working models of the TSD drive from human sources or start our own developent program in order to compensate.

Once again, thank you for your assistance.

With best regards,

Merini Lunos

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**A/N So much for the Tachyon Shunt Drive. Note that she has failed to realize that ships like the Nostromo are actually tugs that can be employed to pull whatever large cargo you need to transport. That greatly enhances the economic advantage. The speed difference comes from comparing figures from the wiki's for both franchises, which gives me 270 C for the Sulaco and 10,000 C for citadel ships.**

**I'm avoiding AI for the moment but I may bring in robots at a later stage. There are some similarities between EDI and the Alien universe synthetics that I could exploit, but for the moment I don't need them for the story and their existence would greatly complicate human-council relationships.**


	4. Private message: Prime numbers

** I do not own any of these franchises (or the public-private key encryption)  
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**FROM: PROFESSOR WALON DARN, DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS, UNIVERSITY OF SURKESH  
**

**TO: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

Dear xxxxxxxxxxxxx

I agree completely with your assessment. The human use of a series of indivisible numbers, or prime numbers as they are properly known, as the opening message in a first contact scenario is most puzzling. After receiving your message I performed an extensive historical search on the potential use of this particular sequence and found the following:

Although no practical application for prime numbers exists outside the field of mathematics, at least one such use has been proposed (see attached paper). This would involve the use of these numbers in the field of encryption. The authors demonstrate that a single composite number (being the product of two prime numbers) would be used as a key to **encrypt** the data, but the two prime numbers would be used to **decrypt** it. The advantage of this method is that the encryption key could be made public without compromising the security of the data, as long as the decryption key remained secret. This would allow a single recipient to receive encrypted messages from multiple sources. All sources would use the sme encryption key, but only the intended recipient could decrypt the messages.  
Unfortunately, the security of such encryption relies on the lack of an efficient method to quickly factorize a large integer number. However, no mathematical prove has ever been presented that such a method could not be devised. Alternatively, the encryption could be broken by applying sufficient computer power to factorize the public part of the key through the existing inefficient means. This was considered an unacceptable security risk. As a result, this form of encryption remains a purely theoretical concept.

The fact that the humans used this sequence in first contact is most intriguing. For the moment I concur with the assessment of the crew of the Light of Dawn that the humans simply wished to send a unique sequence in order to indicate their willingness to communicate. Their choice leaves me with two open questions: Do the humans use this form of encryption, or have they done so in the past? And, if so, what does it tell us about their mindset that they would use the same mathematical concept as a basis for opening communications?

Should STG pursue this line of enquiry further I would be most interested to hear the answers.

yours,

Walon

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_**I put this together primarily in response to the review by** **AVoiceOfReason of my story Someone has heard them scream. I could have had the salarian crewmember know about prime-number based encryption, but it wouldn't have contributed much to the story and I liked the idea of the alien crew just staring at each other blankly when they received that sequence.  
As alternative to the above I could also have explained it as A) the salarians have an algorithm to factor large integers, or B) they just never came up with the public-private key concept****. ****The first seemed a bit too much deus-ex-machina and the latter makes the humans a bit too clever for my taste. So, I went with this one. I can certainly believe that the salarians, with their obsession with intelligence gathering, would consider the risk too high and, frankly, in a society that has such powerful computers that artificial intelligence can occur by accident, I would not trust the security of a public key either.**_

**_N.B. I am not an expert on encryption algorithms, so I hope to be forgiven for any errors. _ **


	5. STG report: unknown species

**I do not own any of these franchises**

**A/N: I wrote this a while ago but couldn't publish it until now because of spoilers for Someone has heard them scream**

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**PRELIMINARY REPORT - SPECIAL ATTENTION HEAD OF STG**

**SECURITY CLASSIFICATION**: High

**Subject:** Unknown species observed by crew members of Council Survey Vessel Light of Dawn

**Author:** Korl Lindon (Head of biotech division)

**Sources:** This report is based on the observations by crewmembers of the council surface vessel Light of Dawn: S. Armali (captain), L. T'Soni (scientific assistant), M. Solus (scientific assistant) during their investigation of a derelict human freighter. All requests for further information from the human civilian and military authorities have been denied. Publicly available information is widespread but often self-contradictory and seems to consist primarily of speculation.

**Motivation:** To communicate preliminary findings regarding the unknown species observed aboard a derelict human freighter and chart a course of action regarding further research.

**Origin: **The origin of this species is currently unknown. It is not recorded as native to the human homeworld. Nor is any planet listed as its homeworld.

**Life-cycle:** The species appears to have a three-part life-cycle: An egg-stage, a parasite stage and the final organism. During the parasite stage the creature attaches itself to the face of a host-organism and implants an embryo, which grows until it is ready to emerge. This stage is short: M. Solus observed emergence of an individual within hours of the host being implanted. Once sufficiently developed it gnaws it's way out through the ribcage, killing the host in the process. (**Note**: We are not aware at this stage how the eggs are produced. Public information sources suggest the existence of a 'queen' variant of the species, similar to the Rachni, which lays the eggs, but this has not been confirmed.)

**Characteristics: **In its final form the creature is bipedal and of a size similar that of most citadel races. (**Note: **No conclusive proof exists that the observed specimens were fully grown.) Its torso is bent forward from the pelvis, counter-balanced by a tail. The head is large and smooth. M. Solus notes in his debriefing the lack of any obvious sensory organs.  
It exhibits extreme hostile behaviour, attacking seemingly without provocation. While not suited in shape to tool use the creature has shown at least rudimentary intelligence as proven by ambush tactics. Potential hosts are seized alive and taken to the creatures' nesting place by the adult specimens, indicating the ability for longterm planning. M. Solus speculates, but cannot proof conclusively, that the creature was capable of opening mechanically closed doors**.** Furthermore the creatures adapted one of the freighter's cargo holds to serve as a nesting place, indicating the ability to build rudimentary structures.  
Offensively the creature attacks primarily with its jaw/teeth as well as with the tail. Both are strong enough to penetrate light body armour as proven observationally by: A) The tail slicing through M. Solus' helmet and B) The inner part of the mouth protruding forward with sufficient strength to penetrate the facial cover of a human helmet.  
Defensively the creature is protected by an exo-skeleton, but this has proven insufficient to stop small-arms fire. Weapons carried by the crew of the Light of Dawn, specified as ERC Predator heavy pistols and an ERC Tempest submachinegun had not trouble penetrating the exoskeleton. The creature's primary defensive characteristic, and one of its most fascinating qualities lies in its blood, which has proven to be highly acidic. Its corrosive properties were observed to be sufficient to severely damage bulkheads and deck-plating aboard the human freighter.

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**CAUTION: The following information is highly speculative**

**Biotics: **M. Solus states that one specimen exhibited biotic capabilities. Although natural biotics have been observed in non-sapient species this has so far been limited to animals born and raised of Thessia (though not necessarily native to that planet) and can be explained by the presence of element zero in these life-forms. In this particular case we cannot be sure whether the biotics are a natural part of the species, or whether they had been obtained through the asari host from which the creature emerged. In case of the former, it would be the first occurrence of natural biotics in a non-sapient life-form outside Thessia. In case of the latter, it would suggest a unique capability to copy characteristics from its host.

**Presence aboard human freighter:** At this stage we cannot fully account for the presence of these creatures aboard the human ship. Reports from the crew of the Light of Dawn seem to indicate clear hostility between this species and the humans. This, and the severity of the human response, would suggest that their presence aboard the freighter was unplanned. An alternative explanation would involve deliberate transportation of these creatures for purposes unknown, followed by an escape from confinement. (**Note:** The human response to the presence of these creatures was to destroy the freighter, rather than attempt containment and recovery. Conclusions based on this behaviour will have to wait, pending a more complete understanding of human psychology.)

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**Conclusions: **The unique characteristics of this species make it imperative that STG continues this study. With no further information forthcoming from the humans I recommend most strongly that STG make an effort to recover specimens, either dead or alive for direct observations.

M. Solus was severely wounded during the incident, but is expected to make a full recovery. As the only salarian to have personally observed this particular species his knowledge can potentially be a great asset to any further investigations. I recommend that STG approach him, discretely, with an offer of employment.

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**ERC: Elanus Risk Control**

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**Oops. Looks like STG is about to make a serious error, but it fits the sort of research they were doing in the lab on Surkesh. Let's hope that they at least have the sense not to keep xenomorphs on their homeworld. **

**Obviously this report is very incomplete, but STG has very little data. I can imagine the humans being reluctant to share information on the xenomorph. It wasn't exactly our finest hour. On top of that, they are basically a biological weapon of mass destruction. Not something you casually share, especially in the wake of the first contact war.**


	6. USM report: turian naval tactics

**I do not own any of these franchises**

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**Preliminary report on turian naval tactics**

**From: Office of operational analysis, Arcturus station**

**To: USM Naval forces**

Having received the first reports from the naval engagements around Shanxi between local defence forces and the alien fleet (now identified as the turian hierarchy), this office is ready to release a preliminary conclusion of its analyses.

**Note of caution**

A) The reader should take into account that the following analysis is based on a single large fleet engagement. As such there is no way to determine whether it was typical of the turian naval doctrine, or the results of the preferences of the fleet commander. However, the former seems more likely as a military organisation typically fights as it trains and is unlikely to deviate from standard doctrine unless forced into it by extraordinary circumstances.

B) It should be noted that the turians have so far not engaged a major human fleet, as the Shanxi defense force was too small to qualify as such. We can therefore not predict with certainty how they would act against an opponent of equal strength.

C) The turians have observed the USM naval doctrine as practised as Shanxi and may adjust their deployment based on these observations.

**Composition of turian fleet**

So far, enemy warships have been observed to fall into one of three categories:

1) Small warships, equivalent in size to USM frigates, hereafter identified as _frigates. _These serve primarily in scouting duties.

2) Intermediate warships, equivalent in size to USM destroyers and rapid deployment vessels, hereafter identified as _cruisers_. These serve primarily in patrol duties and as screening force for larger vessels.

3) Large warships, equivalent in size to USM fleet carriers, hereafter identified as _dreadnoughts_. These serve as the main source of firepower of the fleet.

There have been no observations of a carrier type vessel. Instead, turian cruisers and dreadnoughts carry their own fighter complement, estimated at 6-8 fight5ers per cruiser and 12-24 fighters per dreadnought.

**Tactical deployment**

The enemy seems to embrace a form of the 'combined fleet' concept, in which all ship types work closely together as a single unit. Although frigates and cruisers operate on their own during patrols, scouting, and small skirmishes, no sign of such independent action was observed during the actual fleet action. Instead, the smaller vessels maintained close formation on the dreadnoughts and acted in close cooperation. Frigates acted primarily as a fighter defence, adding their point defense lasers to the the larger ships' own batteries, and cruisers added the force of their main batteries to that of the dreadnoughts in offensive operations. The entire purpose of this fleet seems to be to bring the enemy within effective combat range of the dreadnoughts and engage with direct fire of mass accelerators. Even the fighter squadrons, which had been observed to act independently while supporting single vessels during previous skirmishes remained strongly bound to the fleet. In defense, the turian fleet failed to deploy its fighters forward and thereby surrendered the outer area battle without firing a shot, making their larger ships vulnerable to stand-off weaponry.

For a better understanding of this style of warfare, commanding officers and staff analysts are strongly encouraged to study 19th century texts on naval warfare and, in particular, the work of admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan (US Navy), as well as 20th century commentary on such texts. Although it is too early to determine whether these concepts translate well to space warfare, this office would like to point out several salient facts:  
The concept of the combined fleet as a tactical instrument to win battles, even in ocean going navies, was largely invalidated during the 20th century. The only clear example of such a battle that led to a decisive victory is arguably the battle of Tsushima (1905) between Imperial Japanese and Imperial Russian fleets. A second, much larger battle that should in theory have validated the concept, occurred during the First World War at Jutland (1916) between the British Royal Navy and the Imperial German Navy. This last battle was ultimately indecisive because the numerically weaker German fleet successfully disengaged. The introduction of aircraft carriers during the inter-bellum fundamentally changed the face of naval warfare. By the time of the Second World War, Gunnery duels between warships were restricted to individual ships, or small groups. Larger fleets, if they operated at all, typically engaged at long range through their aircraft. The introduction of guided missiles further complicated the issue during the Cold-war period. Since that time, human naval forces, both ocean going and in space, have preferred to operate in small groups of near-identical ships. Task forces of mixed ship types tend to be used only in a purely defensive form with smaller ships providing defensive firepower for carriers.

**Potential weaknesses**

At this stage we predict that the turian naval tactics will leave them vulnerable:

**A)** The lack of dedicated carriers reduces both the number of fighters available and the efficiency of their cruisers and dreadnoughts, which have to fullfill a secondary task at odds with their primary purpose. Moreover it appears to have let to a sub-optimal deployment of the available fighters which lack the freedom to operate independently, especially on defence.

**B) **Tying small ships to the main fleet reduces their primary advantage (speed and manoeuvrablity) because a fleet is only as fast as its slowest vessel. This reduces their ability to bring our forces to action or prevent them from disengaging. (Turian forces only managed to successfully engage adm. van Buren's destroyers because his ships were forced to decelerate to match speed with a mass relay.)

**C)** The desire to operate numerous ship types together is almost certainly reflected in their design, reducing their effectiveness when operating alone. Since it is impossible to guarantee that the required numbers of each type will be available at all times they will often find themselves at a disadvantage.

**Special Note:**

Unconfirmed reports from Shanxi, received during the later stages of the evacuation, indicate that the turians use their warships in both direct, and indirect, fire support role. Cruisers and dreadnoughts provide indirect fire-support from low orbit. Frigates actually enter the atmosphere of the planet in order to support ground troops directly. If these reports are correct, it indicates a considerable weak spot in the turian order of battle. This type of support is only possible if their fleet is in full control of a star system and if all planetary and orbital defenses have been eliminated. If these conditions are not met, the warships will have to withdraw and the ground troops, which rely on such support and therefore will almost certainly lack sufficient firepower of their own (artillery, rockets, attached air support) will find themselves at a considerable disadvantage.

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**A/N What we see of naval tactics in ME1 and ME3 is very simplistic. Each fleet forms a wall of ships, then they move toward each other, shooting as they come. Once they are at point-blank range, individual ships manoeuvre against each other. This is leads to incredibly wasteful battles, which, in real life, would tend to be indecisive because the winner would be too badly hurt to exploit his victory. This is worked out in great detail in the books of Jack Campbell (lost fleet series), which I can strongly recommend to anyone with an interest in realistic space battles. I've tried to give this fighting style a little legitimacy by matching it to an actual theory of naval warfare. Note that in real life, many of Mahan's strategic principles (commerce protection, cooperation with land based forces, establishing advance bases for resupply) were correct, but the way he envisioned the actual battles never quite worked out (as described above) and was largely negated by the appearance of aircraft carriers, which he could not have foreseen (he died in 1914).  
As for ground support, in the games we never see turian armour or artillery. Even on Menae, where they are fighting for their lives, it is all infantry on foot with fighters and frigates providing support.**

**N.B. I'm neither a naval officer, nor a professional historian, so there may be errors in the historical analysis.**


	7. The first contact report

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware. 20th Century Fox owns the Alien/Predator franchise.**

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**Human-Turian First Contact Analysis  
**

The following is a brief and preliminary summary of the investigation carried out by this committee. A full report will become available at a later date.

By order of the Citadel Council and with the support of the General Assembly of the Alliance of United Systems, this committee has studied the events that led to the Human-Turian conflict known as the Relay 314 incident and/or the First Contact War. In order to complete our analysis we have used the following sources of information:

1\. The after action report compiled by captain_ Livestian_, commanding officer of _HNV Primarch's Pride_ and senior turian commander on scene, provided to us for study by Palaven Central Command

2\. The after action report compiled by captain _Jankowski_, commanding officer of _USM Auriga_ and senior human commander on scene, provided to us by United Systems Military headquarters

3\. Eye-witness statements from senior officers and civilians aboard _USM Auriga_ as well as the commanding officer of _HNV Blade of Palaven_ who observed the incident directly.

We regret that, despite our urgent requests, captain_ Jankowski_ (USM retired) was not available for questioning.

In addition to the material above, which pertains to the first contact situation near Relay 314, we have interviewed the individuals involved in the so-called '_Calypso_ incident'. The humans have provided us with the only known instance of two independent first contact situations to occur simultaneously, involving the same unknown species. The vastly different outcomes have allowed us to gain a better understanding of the pitfalls and potential dangers involved in any first contact.

* * *

**CONCLUSIONS:**

Having reviewed the reports of both sides involved in the disastrous first contact meeting at Relay 314, as well as the far more productive first contact carried out by the crew of the _Light of Dawn_, this commission had identified a number of direct and indirect causes to the disaster that unfolded at Relay 314. Although none of these individually caused the total failure and the ensuing disaster, each contributed to a series of events that rapidly spiralled out of control.

**1\. Captain _Livestian_'s attempts to simultaneously enforce Citadel Law and achieve a successful First Contact.** This is the primary cause of the failure. Not only did these two tasks prove to be mutually exclusive under the circumstances, but the desire to enforce Citadel Law regarding dormant mass relays increased tension among captain Livestian and his officers and limited his choices. A strong desire to uphold the law is, of course, admirable in itself, but this committee notes that captain _Livestian_ himself was already aware of the fundamental problems involved in carrying out both tasks simultaneously. As he pointed out before initializing first contact, the whole purpose of this particular law is to prevent armed conflict, not to start it. This committee regrets that captain _Livestian_ himself seems to have lost sight of this fundamental fact. This committee would also like to point out that, while opening a dormant relay may potentially lead to armed conflict with an unknown species, opening fire on an unknown ship is almost guaranteed to cause such conflict. Clearly, avoiding hostilities with a species that is currently present should take precedence over any potential dangers involved with opening a relay.  
In contrast, the initial exchanges between _Light of Dawn_ and _USM Anzio_ were carried out by individuals who focused exclusively on one task: a successful opening of communications. In particular, first officer_ Levarn_ of_ Light of Dawn_ had been delegated by captain _Armali_, then absent from her ship, to carry out the initial exchanges irrespective of other events taking place. Similarly, captain _Ramirez_ aboard _USM Anzio_ was fully occupied by the demands of the first contact, having delegated the task of boarding the _Calypso_ to his first officer, lieutenant _Anderson_. **N.B.** This committee would like to point out that the very act of lieutenant _Anderson'_s boarding operation, while perhaps necessary under the circumstances, was, in hindsight, a considerable risk that could easily have led to hostilities.

**In addition to the underlying cause** mentioned in the first point, we find that the following activities contributed to the start of hostilities:

**2\. Captain _Jankowski_'s signal to the dormant relay**, which, combined with captain _Livestian_'s mixed priorities, began a cycle of action and reaction that, once started, would eventually lead to armed conflict. While this committee fully understands that captain_ Jankowski_ could not be aware of Citadel Law at this time, we believe that this is also another example of a commanding officer who split his attention, rather than focusing on the immediate need to establish communications.

**3\. Captain_ Livestian_'s attempt to by-pass the initial stages of First Contact by using Prothean data formats.** Not only did this fail, but it led to suspicion among human officers that an attempt at electronic warfare was underway. We note that captain _Livestian_'s actions in this regard were fueled by the need to speed up proceedings, a need that followed directly from his desire to uphold Citadel Law (See point 1).

**4\. Captain _Jankowski_'s attempt to use hacking software** to create a datalink between his ship and the turian flagship. This committee believes that captain _Jankowski_'s actions in this respect were foolhardy and inappropriate. They greatly increased tension at a critical stage of the first contact exchange. Although captain _Jankowski_ had no way to know that his attempts in this regard might lead to a suspicion of A.I. involvement, he should have recognised that any attempt to interfere with turian systems was prone to misunderstanding and could easily lead to a hostile response.

**5\. Manoeuvers carried out by both sides**, mirroring each others' increasingly aggressive stance. These include, but are not limited to:  
Deployment of a fighter wing by turian forces to block access to the mass relay.  
Activation of targeting systems and weapons by both parties involved.  
Human ships turning their bows toward the turian ships.  
These activities gradually increased the tension among all parties involved to the point where both sides expected an immediate attack. This, in turn, led to the perceived need for a pre-emptive strike.

* * *

**RECOMMENDATIONS**

This committee recommends that the following instructions be added to the First Contact Protocols.

**During any potential First Contact meeting, the successful completion of First Contact has absolute priority. All other considerations should be held subordinate.** This includes the enforcement of laws and/or regulations. Ships as well as individuals, engaged in First Contact, should not attempt to carry out any secondary tasks until such time when communications have been established.

**During a First Contact encounter no assumptions regarding pre-existing knowledge should be made. **In particular one should not assume a common communication protocol or data-format exists between the parties involved.

**Vessels engaged in a First Contact meeting should refrain from unnecessary manoeuvres or signaling to third parties. **This applies to both offensive and defensive activities.

**During a First Contact meeting, weapons and targeting systems should be held off-line except for purpose of self-defense.** In particular, they should NEVER be used to 'send a message' or 'get someone's attention'.

**At the first sign that a First Contact meeting is going wrong, all parties involved should withdraw, rather than attempt to force the issue.** The fear of appearing weak before strangers should NOT be a consideration in this respect.

Finally, the committee would like to make the following recommendation:

Although it falls outside the scope of our investigation, which was limited to the First Contact itself, the committee notes that the ensuing war could still have been prevented, except for subsequent actions by both human and turian forces that caused unnecessary escalation. We feel strongly that, even after a failed First Contact, all effort should be made to diffuse the situation, rather than exacerbate it. Therefore, we recommend that a 'cool down' period should be observed, even if the First Contact ended in active hostilities, during which no further offensive action is taken.

**!====================================**

**A/N**

**I would assume that after a debacle like this there would be an investigation. (In the games, accountability is often waved away, but, in reality, there would be a lot of people demanding answers.) Hence this report. I tried to write it the way a group of bureaucrats would write it. Also, there would be political pressure from both sides to shift the blame. That's why I wrote it so that the blame is spread fairly evenly. It's not necessarily true, but this would be the committee's way of keeping everybody happy.**

**As an aside, some reviewers have commented that I made the ships from Alien/Predator too slow. The numbers I used are based on the wiki, which in turn takes its info from the colonial marines manual. It's not really canon, but it comes close, and using figures from the movies is difficult. They provide little hard info and some of it is just plain wrong. E.g. One number for the distance between Prometheus and Earth would indicate that they are still in the solar system. Also, keep in mind that travel-times are always measured in months, or even years. Hence the cryo-tubes. Even a slow ship can travel long distance if you're willing to take your time, and it is never made clear how much of the galaxy they had actually explored.**


	8. Turian military, an analysis of failure

**Mass Effect is the property of Bioware. 20th Century Fox owns the Alien/Predator franchise.**

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**The following article appeared in 'Ways of the Huntress', the leading asari publication on military affairs. The author wishes to remain anonymous**

It has been five years since three events shocked citadel space to its core: the discovery of a new, unknown space-traveling species, the fact that the Hierarchy had gone to war against them, and the staggering news that the war was going badly.

The tragic events, mistakes, and miscommunications that led to the short, but brutal war between the humans and the turians have been discussed many times and will undoubtedly continue to be discussed for the foreseeable future. This author does not intend to join that discussion, as there is nothing new to be said. It was a terrible tragedy; it should not have happened, but it did; we should learn from it. What more is there to say?

Instead, I wish to discuss the events that followed the first contact. The recent improvements in the relationship between the humans and the citadel species have allowed us some limited access to human documentation that gives us new insight into the events that unfolded during the war. The conclusions that can be drawn from these documents are both enlightening and confusing and raise as many questions as they answer.

**A one-sided conflict?**

At first glance, the human-turian war, which humans call the First-Contact War and turians dismiss as the Relay 314 Incident, seemed a terrible mismatch. On one side stood the Hierarchy with the most powerful army and navy in the galaxy, and fifteen hundred years of unbroken supremacy; on the other a species that, as we now know, had only experienced a scant two-and-a-half centuries of space travel and no large scale warfare since before they left the surface of their homeworld. How could such a conflict end in anything but a swift and crushing human defeat?

Instead, the Hierarchy performed poorly from the beginning, taking disproportionate losses even against a lightly defended star system. Once the humans deployed their main force, the war quickly turned in their favour. In the only large-scale space battle of the war, in which forces of approximately equal strength faced each other, the human fleet scored a major, if hard-won, victory. Planetside conflict was even more one-sided with the human counter invasion quickly destroying the turian occupation force.

The end results left us stunned, and deeply worried. Despite both numerical and technological superiority, the Hierarchy, the peacekeepers of citadel space, were quickly outfought and handed a terrible defeat. Surely this does not bode well for the future. If a single species of strictly limited means can accomplish this, what would happen if the warlords of the terminus banded together and made a similar effort? How safe are we really?

**The reality of the war**

**Background**

The first thing to consider when trying to answer these questions is that the balance of forces described above is somewhat misleading in that the humans never fought the Hierarchy as a whole. Instead, a significant fraction of the United Systems Military faced off against a relatively small fraction of the Hierarchy. That such a situation was allowed to occur speaks poorly of Hierarchy strategic planning, but this does not negate the fact that the Hierarchy could have deployed a much stronger force, albeit at the cost of its many other commitments.

Secondly, it has become clear that, due to their unique history (a lack of element zero in their home system and no nearby mass relays or prothean ruins), human expansion into space followed an atypical pattern. As a result, the size of their territory in space remained limited even though their population and number of colonies expanded rapidly. This caused a false perception of humans as a primitive species with only limited expansion in the galaxy, which in turn led to the allocation of assets that were woefully inadequate for the task.

Thirdly, the description of the human technology and military experience is equally incomplete. While humanity experienced no large scale conflict after achieving space travel, they did so only shortly before that time. In fact, the last major intra-human wars are only about three centuries ago, leaving humanity with far more recent experience than any of the citadel races (I will ignore the unique case of the quarian-geth conflict). Moreover, humanity did experience repeated occurrences of small-scale, low-intensity conflict, primarily in the form of guerrilla wars and urban terrorism, which helped them to maintain and improve their military capacity.

Finally, we should acknowledge that, even in peacetime, humanity as a species seems fascinated with conflict to an extent that matches, or even exceeds, that of the turians. Even a casual study of human culture shows that a large fraction of both interactive and non-interactive entertainment forms focus on warfare, both real and imagined. While this can not possible substitute for actual experience, I believe that it did help them to maintain a form of tactical and strategic awareness.

**Strategic failure**

A major problem for the Hierarchy was that the goal they set out to achieve was political, rather than military and required a specific response from the humans. General Arterius' intent was to conquer the planet of Shanxi and thereby force the humans to negotiate. Unfortunately, the strategic concept behind this plan was inherently flawed. It meant that, after conquering the planet, the turians were stuck, waiting for the humans to take the expected course of action. By doing so general Arterius effectively handed over the initiative to the United Systems Military, which failed to respond as he had predicted. As a human officer pointed out: "If the enemy can foil your plan by simply doing nothing, you're doing something wrong!"  
The problems that the turian ground force experienced were exacerbated by the fundamentally different nature of human technology. This increased their logistical difficulties since even the most basic components had to be supplied from Citadel Space.

By contrast, the United Systems Military, once fully mobilised, had no such restrictions. Their task was clear and strictly military: to end the turian incursion in their territory. This objective was then pursued with all available means. Much has been made of the 'military genius' displayed by the human military commanders, but the truth is that their tactical and strategic choices, while generally correct, were simply logical considering their goals and available means. This is not a criticism of their performance. By and large, the human military leadership, though confronted by a situation that they had no practical experience of, performed quite well. However, that does not make them geniuses. It simply makes them competent soldiers. If any genius was displayed we have to look back in time to the people who prepared the United Systems Military for war by giving them weapons and equipment to cover any eventuality. It is in this respect that the Hierarchy found itself severely outclassed, as I will make clear in the following paragraphs.

**Turian over-specialization  
**

A significant, though poorly understood, factor in the turian defeat seems to lie in the fact that over the centuries their primary focus has shifted from warfare to peacekeeping missions. This has had far-reaching consequences that negated their technological advantage. For example, turian warships, though in possession of more powerful armament and stronger kinetic barriers than their human counterparts, repeatedly found themselves outclassed. This was at least partially the result of the fact that the turian ships were designed for peacetime duties, focusing primarily on patrol tasks. The human warships, on the other hand, were clearly designed for specialised tasks. This allowed them to achieve a higher level of efficiency within their limited areas of excellence, negating their technological disadvantage.

**Ground combat**

By expanding on the theme mentioned in the previous paragraph we can also explain the poor performance of turian ground forces. The sad truth is that the turian army was trying to do something for which it was never intended: Conquering, and then holding, a planet. Although this seems a logical function for an army, close inspection of turian equipment and doctrine shows us that the Hierarchy neither trains nor equips its soldiers for this purpose. Rather, turian ground forces are trained and equipped to maintain the peace on a planet after it has been conquered. The initial stages of conquest are supposed to be performed by the fleet through the means of orbital bombardment, or simply the threat thereof. With such measures initially ruled out for political reasons the turian ground forces found themselves outmatched by an opponent that sees the function of its planetary units in a different light. When the United Systems launched its counter-offensive this difference became even more clear. The human ground forces, far more heavily armed than their turian opponents and with a wide range of planetside weaponry for which no turian equivalent exists, quickly gained the upper hand. Turian soldiers simply had no effective reply once they were deprived of fleet support.  
At no time was this more obvious than during the turian attempt to oppose the initial landings. A considerable force of turian soldiers was flown toward the human landing site, only to be smashed with contemptuous ease. Human observers of these events commented later on the folly of using airborne assault to deliver a major strategic deployment without proper support. The words 'Arnhem' and 'Market Garden' have been mentioned repeatedly in this context, though their meaning is as yet not understood.  
By contrast: recent observations show that human law enforcement agencies field specialised units that have armament and equipment, comparable to that of the Hierarchy's army. This can not be overstated: the human equivalent to C-Sec deploys weapons that match the turian army! What this implies about the human level of crime is beyond the scope of this article.

This has major strategic implications as well: The United Systems could afford to launch their planetary assault even before the fleet engagement had started. Their ground troops didn't need a fleet presence. This is a capability that the Hierarchy doesn't have. Landing turian troops on a planet before the fleet has secured local space is simply not an option. It also allowed the humans to retake the planet without doing the kind of damage that follows from orbital bombardment, a major consideration when fighting on one's own planets.

**Naval combat**

It is the naval engagements between that seem to yield the most surprising results as the only space-combat humanity had seen to this point took the form of anti-piracy and anti-smuggling operations, with no opponent stronger than a frigate presenting itself. As a result, humanity was in the process of reducing the size of their fleets. (One wonders what would have happened if First Contact had been delayed by as little as a few decades. It seems quite possible that human naval strength would have dropped below the level where they could no longer have mounted an effective defence in space.)

However, as it turns out, humanity is unique in that it had acquired a form of experience in naval combat before it left the surface of its home world! To date, humanity is the only species that engaged in large-scale warfare on the oceans of its home world. This can be easily understood in that the turian homeworld, Palaven, lacks large bodies of surface water. By contrast, those species who did evolve on water-rich worlds (asari, salarians), did not have traditions of large-scale warfare amongst themselves and therefore failed to develop the sort of "wet navies" that pre-space humans considered to be a normal part of their military world.  
It is this unique concept that humans took with them to the stars, building a space-navy that, in many aspects, reflects their previous nautical experience. Here we also find the uniquely human concept of dedicated fighter-carriers as the primary strike force of a navy. For an ocean-based fleet, the use of aircraft allows a commander to strike from 'beyond the horizon', hitting their enemies with impunity, without ever coming in direct contact with the enemy fleet. Of course, in space, the situation is different as was proven by the fact that the human carriers failed to stay out of mass-accelerator reach of the turian dreadnoughts. Still, once the implications of this concept were realised, other species have hurried to construct similar vessels of their own, not only to get around the Treaty of Farinxen but also because of the strategic flexibility that these carriers allow them to exercise.

**Conclusions**

Between a flawed strategy, inadequate equipment, and an opponent that was fundamentally different from anything that had previously been encountered or expected, it comes as no surprise that the Hierarchy found itself outfought. In fact, an objective observer can only come to the conclusion that the outcome was largely inevitable. Now that this has happened it is up to us, the ones who observed this conflict, to learn its lessons and make sure that in future we are better prepared.

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**As with the previous chapter, it seems only logical that people would study events and determine what had gone wrong. Once again, the in-universe author does not get everything right, but I'm trying to describe things from an alien viewpoint with limited access to the human data.  
**

**Regarding the wet-navy issue, I'm borrowing the idea that humans are the only species with extensive ocean navy experience from Animus of Masada's story 'First Contact', which has sadly been discontinued. It makes sense: turians cannot swim, which would seem to indicate a homeworld with little open surface water, asari and salarians see war more in terms of small unit actions, rather than all out battles. Hanar might have a navy of course, but that would more likely to be a pure submarine force.**


	9. USM groundbased weapons

**I own neither Mass Effect, nor the AvP franchise**

**Thanks to OverDemon for suggesting this subject**

* * *

**Hierarchy Intelligence Service  
**

**Department 3: Technical analysis**

**Reporting on its analysis of human ground combat equipment during the Relay 314 incident.**

* * *

**INTRODUCTION**

The following represents the result of our study of human weapon systems, as used in ground combat during the Relay 314 incident. It is based on our study of captured examples as well as eye-witness accounts of our soldiers and a limited amount of data obtained directly from human sources through a variety of means.

**QUALIFYING STATEMENT**

Before we go into the details of our analysis of various human weapon systems, we should consider two pertinent issues:

1) The human philosophy of weapon-design reflects their strategic military thinking. The Hierarchy considers the fleet to be an inherent part of any planetside campaign. It is the fleet that softens up the target with bombardment and it is the fleet that provides fire-support for soldiers on the ground. In contrast, the United Systems Military sees the role of the fleet during planetary warfare as that of a transport service. They deliver soldiers to the planet. Afterwards, the ground forces are largely left on their own. The fleet limits itself to keeping hostile ships way from the planet.  
This strategic concept seems linked to the curious human distaste for orbital bombardment, as shown by their treatment of general Desolas Arterius and the fact that they themselves never employed such means. The reasons for this particular attitude are not fully understood. They may have their origin in human military history. Alternatively, they may be influenced by the fact that an extraordinary number of human colonies have been built on planets that are at best marginally habitable. Clearly, using orbital bombardment on a colony that requires a sealed environment would have catastrophic results. Under these circumstances, a protracted ground campaign may be seen as the preferred option.

2) At this time, we are unsure as to whether the wide array of weapons employed during the conflict truly represents the human way of fighting a war. We should take into account that humans had no previous experience of large scale interstellar combat. As a result, many of their weapon systems seem to have been designed based on speculation, rather than practical experience. Once the war started, they deployed every weapon at their disposal. This included, according to one human source, a kitchen sink; though we have no record of such an object being used for military purpose. It is possible that, given their recent experience, the United Systems Military will choose to retire part of their arsenal and focus on the development of those weapons that proved to be most effective. We will have to wait for further data before this can be verified.

* * *

**PERSONAL WEAPONS**

The obvious difference between human personnel weapons and those used by the Hierarchy (of for that matter most of Citadel Space) is the continued reliance on chemically propelled rounds over mass accelerators. This can be explained by a lack of technological and scientific understanding of the principles behind mass effect technology, but it seems likely that a difference in design philosophy plays a part as well. There are four points to be considered:

\- **economy**: Human weapons are orders of magnitude cheaper to produce than our own. This is off-set by the fact that human ammunition is far more expensive to produce, is bulkier, and tends to be unique to a particular type of weapon, rather than being interchangeable.

\- **scale**: Human weaponry can be scaled down to a much smaller size. (**Security Warning:** Between the small size and the lack of an active energy source human weapons can be carried concealed more easily than our own.)

\- **volume of fire**: Chemically powered weaponry can produce a far larger volume of fire than mass accelerators. Even when operating in a vacuum, human weaponry takes longer to overheat. Human soldiers operating assault rifles were seen to fire continuously, stopping only to change magazines. The latter task, thanks to careful ergonomic design, can be performed within a much shorter time period than it takes our own rifles to cool down after overheating. This feature also allows for the existence of the human M56 Smartgun, a much heavier weapon that has been designed for continuous fire. No such weapon exists anywhere in Citadel Space. In this particular case, overheating does eventually become a problem. Human engineers have solved this by making the barrel easy to exchange.

\- **Immunity to countermeasures**: Lacking an active energy source, other than in their optical sights, human weapons are largely immune to sabotage attempts by engineers and infiltrators.

**Human assault rifles, an in-depth analysis**

The standard human assault rifle, as used by the United Systems Military, has been identified as the Lacrima 99 assault rifle. We offer the following analysis, based on captured examples.

The Lacrima 99 is a rifle-sized weapon, comparable to our own Phaeston in size. It consists of two separate weapon systems, firing through separate barrels, but linked to a single trigger mechanism. The lower barrel functions as an assault rifle or submachinegun. It fires chemically powered rounds either single-shot, in three-round bursts, or on full automatic. The standard bullets are of a variety designated APHE (armour-piercing high-explosive). A different type of bullet, called frangible, that breaks up on impact, has been observed as well. The latter, which lacks penetrating power, is most likely designed for use aboard ships or in other circumstances where armour-piercing rounds would be dangerous to use.  
The upper barrel fires grenades, which can be set to either explode on impact or after travelling a certain distance. The latter is achieved by using a laser to measure the distance, linked to an optical sight.  
Finally, the Lacrima features a built-in bayonet for close combat usage.  
When compared to our own Phaeston, this is clearly a highly sophisticated weapon, despite the use of chemically propelled ammunition. However, soldiers who observed its use in the field have criticised it on several points.

\- 1. The assault rifle lacks penetrating power when compared to our mass accelerator rounds. Our soldiers report that standard Hierarchy body armour can withstand repeated hits before being pierced. This lack can be explained by the fact that human soldiers do not wear plated armour, nor do they have any form of natural armour. Therefore, they had no particular need for high penetration rounds. The grenade launcher can secure a one-shot kill, but using it against individual soldiers constitutes a waste of firepower.** (Note:** The high volume of fire does make the Lacrima extremely effective against shields.)

\- 2. The grenade launcher is overly complex. The small explosive charge delivered by this weapon simply does not warrant such a complicated aiming mechanism.

\- 3. The weapon itself is relatively difficult to use, requiring a long training period. The grenade launcher, in particular, requires the user to manipulate several buttons while looking through the optical sight. (**Note:** the human five-digit hand makes this easier for them than it is for us.)

By comparison, our own Phaeston rifles have higher armour piercing capability and, while lacking the multi-functionality, they are easier to use.

It is possible that human soldiers have similar issues with this weapon. At least one other type of assault rifle, identified as the M41 Pulserifle, has been observed in use with planetary militia and private security forces. This weapon, which seems to exist in several versions, is less sophisticated in terms of design, fires larger, more powerful rounds, and has a simple grenade launcher that is fired over open sights.

**Recommendation:**

This committee sees no reason to adopt the human practice of using chemically powered rounds over mass accelerators for standard infantry use. Although chemical rounds do offer certain advantages, we feel that they are more than offset by the inherent downsides to such a primitive concept; in particular, the logistic problems related to providing large numbers of soldiers with sufficient ammunition. Instead, research should focus on increasing the rate of fire of our own weapons. Recent tests using a disposable heat-sink that can be exchanged quickly would appear to be the best way ahead. Whether the development of an equivalent to the human M56 Smartgun is desirable is a tactical question rather than a technological one, but even there we would advise that such a weapon be based on mass accelerator technology.

* * *

**GROUND-BASED HEAVY WEAPONS  
**

During the planetside combat on Shanxi, the United Systems Military deployed a wide range of wheeled combat vehicles, reminiscent of the krogan Tomkah. These were used in various roles, such as troop transport, command and control, direct fire support, indirect fire support, and air defence. Historically, the Hierarchy has used such vehicles in many conflicts, including the Unification Wars and the Krogan Rebellions. However, in the last few centuries, such equipment has fallen into disuse. Those vehicles that still exist are kept in long-term storage. Soldiers rarely receive training in their use and they are not deployed with expeditionary forces. Their role has been taken over by either fixed defences, which exist on any Hierarchy planet, and the fleet.

**Analysis**

Here we are confronted by the fundamental difference in military philosophy. While the Hierarchy has come to rely on the fleet to deliver the necessary heavy firepower, the United Systems Military has given its ground forces their own fire support. The obvious downside of the human philosophy is that it is extremely wasteful in terms of financial resources. It has forced them to develop and produce a wide range of weapon systems, which the Hierarch simply does not need. The advantage is that it gives them greater tactical and strategic flexibility. Human ground forces can operate without fleet support. This allowed them to continue fighting after the Hierarchy fleet had secured the orbitals. Similarly, during the counter-invasion, human soldiers were able to deploy before their own fleet had achieved victory in space.

Whether it is desirable to follow the human example in this regard is debatable. Besides the obvious economic consideration, their practical application would involve a fundamental change in our military strategy. Furthermore, the actual advantage that these weapons bestow on the ground forces is more limited than was initially assumed.

\- 1. While defending Shanxi, the local human forces only made limited use of these weapons. Post-war analysis suggests that they are vulnerable to air attack and could not operate effectively as long as the Hierarchy ruled the skies.

\- 2. Once the Hierarchy forces started using orbital bombardment, the humans were forced to surrender. Clearly, possessing a wide range of ground based weapon systems is no substitute for holding the high orbitals. The trial and execution of general Arterius suggest that the United Systems Military is fundamentally opposed to the use of orbital bombardment and therefore needs an alternative source of firepower. The Hierarchy does not face this problem.

We are forced to conclude that, although the presence of these vehicles conveys a significant advantage to a ground force while the sky and the orbitals are being contested, full possession of air and space superiority is fundamentally more important. Unless the Hierarchy intends to adopt the human habit of deliberately fighting a war with limited weapons, we have no intrinsic need for such vehicles. That being said, the ability to deploy a ground force early, rather than waiting for the fleet to secure local space, can be useful. Similarly, giving ground forces the ability to support themselves, rather than rely on fleet support, will allow the fleet to operate more independently, rather than tying them to a planet that is being contested.

**Recommendation**

At this stage, the committee feels that further study on the theoretical concepts, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of deploying ground-based heavy weapons, needs to be conducted before any decision is taken. Furthermore, even if such vehicles are to be deployed, we may consider using mass effect based propulsion technology over wheels. Meanwhile, an immediate study of anti-vehicle weaponry is strongly recommended. Hierarchy soldiers used rocket launchers to good effect during the final stages of the battle. However, these weapons are limited in range, leaving the user vulnerable to countermeasures. Similarly, we should give priority to improving the ability of our fighters to find, follow, and engage mobile ground-based targets.

* * *

**DEDICATED GROUND-ATTACK FIGHTERS/SHUTTLES/DRONES**

During its campaign to retake Shanxi, the United Systems Military employed several airborne weapon platforms, which seemed to have been designed exclusively for air-to-ground combat. The two that stand out the most are a type of small combat drone and a hybrid shuttle/fighter craft now identified as the UD-4Y Super Cheyenne.

**Drones**

The use of small drones in ground warfare is, of course, nothing new. However, in Citadel Space, they have been mainly applied as a security measure. They are primarily used to patrol a limited area and alert their users to the presence of intruders. The human combat drones showed considerably more versatility. Equipped with rapid-firing guns and rockets, they were used offensively to scout ahead of the advancing ground forces, locate defensive positions, and engage them with a considerable degree of tactical freedom. This has led to rumours of Artificial Intelligence, something which humans have always denied.  
According to the latest information, these drones can operate in two modes. The first is run by an independent computer system, akin to our own VIs, which controls the drone as it follows a prescribed flight path and responds to the presence of hostile forces according to a number of preset parameters. Alternatively, a human operator can take over and fly the drone directly usi9ng remote control.

These drones represent an expensive, but effective solution to the problem of scouting in a high-intensity conflict. We should keep in mind that human technology has not produced the type of cloak used by our own Ghost infiltrators. This makes active scouting by human soldiers a dangerous, if not suicidal endeavour.

**The UD-4Y Super Cheyenne**

The UD-4Y Super Cheyenne is an assault craft that combines the characteristics of a troop transport and a fighter. They were used extensively during the human counter invasion; Initially to insert troops from orbit and afterwards as a fire support platform. At this time, this vehicle is unique, not only in combining transport and combat roles but in its flight characteristics. Unlike other airborne combat platforms, the UD-4Y has been optimised for low-velocity performance. It lacks the straight line acceleration of normal fighters, as well as their ability to turn rapidly at high speed. Instead, it excels at low-speed manoeuvres. This particular optimisation makes it ideal for supporting soldiers on the ground. Instead of performing high-speed strafing runs at pre-selected targets, the UD-4Y can hover over a battlefield, selecting targets at will and responding to calls for support at a moment's notice. In order to facilitate this kind of combat, the UD-4Y carries a large supply of disposable ordnance, including multiple types of unguided and guided weapons, as well as a rapid-firing cannon.  
Obviously, such a flight pattern leaves the UD-4Y vulnerable to both ground-to-air fire and hostile fighters. However, this problem is partially compensated for by its heavy armour, which can stand up to hand-held weapons and its extreme manoeuvrability, which makes it a difficult target for fighters to engage, especially close to the ground. During the ground fighting on Shanxi, UD-4Ys were engaged by our own fighters and managed to defend themselves with a reason degree of effectiveness. When pitted against our own troop transports and aircars, they were highly effective.

**Recommendation**

The human drones warrant further study for possible implementation of similar systems. However, they are a rather expensive solution to the problem of reconnaissance, a role which our own infiltrators perform quite well.

The UD-4Y is a different case altogether. Unlike the human ground-based weapon platforms, which represent a fundamentally different military philosophy, this particular craft fits in well with current Hierarchy doctrine and would fill an obvious gap in our current capabilities. It can operate alongside troop transports and provide our soldiers with immediate fire support as they land. The lack of such a vehicle played a major part in our inability to destroy the initial human landing force. During this action, our assault shuttles suffered heavy losses during the approach, while our soldiers, once they deployed, found themselves facing massive enemy firepower without an adequate means of response. (**Note:** Wheeled vehicles would have been useless under these circumstances because they could not have reached the target area in a timely manner.) In particular, a weapon platform of this kind would be ideal in the anti-groundvehicle role, combining sufficient speed to engage them with the low velocity performance necessary to search for them and engage them.  
This committee recommends that all necessary resources be employed in order to design, build, and deploy a similar weapon system. Efforts should focus primarily on the fire-support role, with troop-transport being of secondary importance.

* * *

**Clearly a number of developments here:**

**We see the origin of thermal clips (caused in my universe by contact with humans, rather than the geth****).**

**The security concern is a real issue. ME universe relies on scanning for energy sources, so a human gun would go undetected. Metal detectors wouldn't work well. Turians have so much metal in their bodies that I'm not sure even a full body scan would work on them**.

**Finally, the Cheyenne dropship is going to result in the design of the gunships that ****we saw in ME2 and ME3. I've always loved the Cheyenne, so I wanted to make sure it got the recognition it deserves.  
**

**The analysis of hand weapons is more detailed than the rest, but that is due to the fact that they have working examples of human rifles, wheres the rest is only based on observations.**


	10. The laws of war

**I don't own either Mass Effect or the AvP franchise**

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**Thanks to Scout1984 for suggesting this subject. I've tried to do it justice.  
**

**N.B. I am planning a second chapter on this subject, but that will have to wait until I have dealt with the Torfan raid or there would be too many spoilers.**

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**Limited warfare, total war, and the legal penalties for wartime activities **

**by**: **Nitilia Banis**

**Presented to the Hierarchy Legal Education board**

* * *

**Introduction**

The following document is a summary of my academic thesis, which seeks to explain the human legal system as pertaining to warfare, and their action against general Desolas Arterius, by placing them within the context of human military history. I have managed to obtain historical data from human archives relating to warfare as practised in their pre-space society. I have also communicated with human historians and legal experts in an attempt to trace the development of the current human legal practice as regards the execution of military action.

**A word of warning**

The first thing to consider is that aliens are, in fact, alien. Centuries of interaction have caused a great deal of cultural cross-contamination in Citadel Space. Unfortunately, this has caused many of us to forget just how different we can be from each other. With the discovery of humans, we are, once again, reminded of this fact. Humans are not weird-looking turians, and their actions and thoughts have to be seen in the context of human society and the history that shaped it. To judge them as though they were turians would be an exercise in futility.

**The central issue**

The trial and execution of general Desolas Arterius shocked the Hierarchy and Citadel Space in general. Perhaps even more shocking, from a legalistic point of view, was the human warning that anyone else involved in the bombing of human population centres could be tried and executed as well. The fact that they were obeying general Arterius' orders would not be considered an adequate defence in human court. According to human law, the order to target a population centre was illegal and it was not only the right but the duty of any officer or soldier to refuse such orders. The idea that an order can be illegal and not only can be but should be refused is absurd in turian eyes. In fact, no species in Citadel Space has such a law. However, rather than deride this concept we should investigate its origins and in order to understand those we have to investigate the human distinction between limited war and total war, which lies at the heart of this legal issue.

Limited or restricted war can, according to the human definition, take various forms. In general, it means that a war is not pursued by all means available, nor is it fought until one side is completely destroyed. In practice, this usually means that  
A) War is only fought until a certain objective, short of total victory, is achieved.  
B) Certain weapons are not used. In particular, the use of chemical and biological weapons is forbidden. Nuclear weapons were initially forbidden as well, but this restriction has since been rewritten to forbid the use of nuclear weapons against planetary surface targets.  
C) Certain targets are to be excluded. In particular, population centres that only hold individuals not actively serving in the military.  
In most cases, a combination of these three restrictions apply.  
Unrestricted war, or total war, by contrast, allows the use of any weapon, against any target. It is also fought until one side is no longer capable of fighting.

The concept of a restricted war may seem strange to turians. After all, it has always been our philosophy that if a war is to fought at all, it has to be fought by all means and that the enemy has to be destroyed completely. However, before we congratulate ourselves on our superior understanding of warfare we should take a closer look at recent events. During the Relay 314 incident, general Arterius took a small fleet to attack a human colony; not as a prelude to a larger campaign, but to put pressure on the human government and force them to open negotiations. This is, under definition A listed above, a form of limited warfare, albeit that general Arterius did not restrict himself in terms of the targets he attacked, or the weapons that he used.  
Similarly, our anti-piracy operations on the edge of the Terminus can also be classified as such, in the sense that we have never launched a campaign to eradicate piracy throughout the galaxy. Only large-scale conflicts, such as the Rachni War, the Krogan Rebellions, and the Geth-uprising can truly be considered 'Total War'. For that matter, Citadel Law expressly forbids the use of nuclear weapons against garden worlds in an attempt to limit environmental damage. This also qualifies as a restriction on warfare.

* * *

**Historical Context (I: The nature of human warfare)**

Historically, starting from the first recorded events, most human wars qualify as limited warfare, at least in terms of the objective. Instead of one side achieving total victory, they usually ended with a peace-treaty in which the more successful side achieved the most favourable terms. The objectives of such wars varied in nature. Examples include, but are not limited to, the acquisition of resources (usually land), access to sites of religious importance, access to trade routes (in particular access to waterways and open ocean), permission to trade with merchants of a certain country, and the forced change of government in a country. The motivation for going to war over such issues, and finishing the war once the limited objective was achieved, is difficult to judge from a modern perspective. The general trend seems to be that humans were quite willing to go to war, even over minor issues, but did not consider these issues sufficiently worthwhile to fight the war to the bitter end.

An important consideration is that, in many instances, human nations lacked professional standing armies. Often, soldiers were citizens who were only enlisted for the duration of the conflict. Alternatively, they were professional mercenaries who were hired only in wartime. Those societies that had a form of professional soldier in permanent service often limited their ranks to a specific social group. Additional soldiers would be enlisted only for a limited period of time.  
For such a society, fighting a war until the enemy is destroyed is economically difficult. Here I am indebted to my esteemed colleagues from the Vol Protectorate's Office of Economic History (VPOEH) who agreed to inspect the data that I received from human historians. Their verdict is unanimous. Most human societies simply could not afford to fight a 'Total War'. Being pre-industrial, and therefore dependent on physical labour to maintain production, they could not maintain armies of a size necessary to conduct such a war. For example, farmers, taken off their fields to serve as soldiers, had to return within a short period of time in order to harvest their crops and avoid wide-spread famine. This problem is exacerbated by the nature of the human home-world. Because of the tilt of its rotation axis relative to its orbital plane, the planet Earth is subject to strong seasonal changes that dictate plant growth and therefore the agriculture. As a result, crops had to be harvested at specific times. The alternative, hiring mercenaries, led to similar problems because the cost of keeping them employed was too much for most societies to bear. Needless to say, maintaining a standing army of large size would lead to similar problems as it would take too much of the population out of the economy. Adding to this problem was the fact that most pre-industrial human societies were strictly patriarchal, excluding human females from many functions, including military service.  
(**Note: **Further enquiry among human historians confirms this assessment. In fact, one of their pre-industrial societies, called the Assyrian Empire is thought to have collapsed at least partially because it required an army so large that its population could not maintain a functioning economy.)

This does not mean that human wars were never fought to a complete victory. A particular example, which the VPOEH has studied at some length, is the conflict known to humans as the Punic Wars. In this conflict, which consists of three wars, one city-state, called the Roman Republic, utterly destroyed its opponent, a city-state known as Carthage, to the point where the latter city ceased to exist, not just as a political entity, but as a city. However, there are three issues to be considered:  
1) The Roman Republic nearly depopulated itself during this war. Twenty-five percent of adult roman males is thought to have died in this conflict.  
2) The Romans compensated for the loss of manpower by using slave labour. This led to long-term political consequences because of high unemployment levels among free roman citizens, a problem they never fully solved.  
3) There are strong indications that, unlike Rome, Carthage did not consider itself involved in a form of total war. Coming from a different military tradition, they saw war only as a means to force a profitable peace-treaty and were quite surprised when the Romans refused all offers to negotiate.  
Other examples of total war among pre-industrial human societies exist as well, but they were often driven by special considerations. Some were born our of religious fervour, which made any kind of negotiation with the enemy unacceptable. In other cases, a society effectively used plunder gained from warfare to fund the army that fought the war. This was, of course, a dangerous practice because a single defeat could spell ruin.

As human moved into their industrial age, wars became larger in scale. Their societies could spare a larger fraction of their population for military service. Furthermore, the advent of true industry, capable of mass-production, enabled them to supply such armies. Unfortunately, it would appear that human political and military thinking had fallen behind during this development. Humans were still willing to go to war over relatively minor issues, without fully realizing the implications of their enhanced military capabilities. This resulted in a series of large-scale, increasingly bloody conflicts, many of which qualify as 'total wars', which culminated in two planet-spanning wars, labelled the First and Second World War'.

**Two global wars**

The First World War, which lasted four years, was unprecedented in scale and in the level of death and destruction involved. By this time, human technology had reached the level of producing firearms capable of full-automatic fire. This greatly enhanced the defensive capability of their armies, whereas offfensive capability had fallen behind. The result was a stalemate that would only be broken by the introduction of the first armoured vehicles. During this stalemate, repeated attempts were made to break the front by simply throwing waves of infantry at the enemy fortifications in costly and ultimately futile attacks. The total cost of this war has been estimated at 17 million deaths and an even larger number of wounded. Additional developments of this war included the use of chemical weapons (gas) as well as the bombardment of population centres by primitive airplanes in an attempt at breaking the morale of the enemy population. The latter, in particular, would set the stage for the next round of warfare.

Although this First World War had been fought to the end, resulting in the total destruction of one side of the conflict, it had not resolved many of the underlying issues that caused the war to start in the first place. Furthermore, it had created new problems, both political and socia. It was followed by a period that saw several revolutions and smaller wars. Meanwhile, tensions between the nations increased until, within two decades of the end of the last war, a new global war, the Second World War, broke out.

The exact length of this Second World War is more difficult to determine because historians cannot agree on the starting date. This seems to depend on whether one counts several ongoing conflicts that eventually became part of this war as separate events. The most common figure currently quoted is six years. By this time, technological development had produced a dramatic change in the nature of war, which now involved rapid manoeuvres over large distances. Once again, this war can be classified as 'total war'. It was fought until one side surrendered unconditionally and no target was spared. In particular, the development of more sophisticated airplanes now allowed the complete destruction of cities. Initially, this was done with normal explosives and incendiaries, but the final year of the war saw the development nuclear weapons, two of which were used.  
The destruction brought about by this war was catastrophic, including an estimated death toll of 60 million people. (For comparison, this constituted approximately 3 percent of the total human population!) Furthermore, this war saw a steady increase in the atrocities committed against both enemy prisoners of war and civilian populations.

It is in the wake of this conflict that humans first started holding trials to punish those responsible for the outbreak of the war, as well as those who had actively committed the atrocities.

* * *

**Historical Context (II: The behaviour of humans in wartime)**

Historically, human warfare tends to go to extremes. On the one end of the scale, there are many instances of humans behaving with remarkable decency during war. There are examples of generals on opposing sides becoming personal friends, and of soldiers in opposing armies celebrating religious holidays together. On the other end of the scale, humans have treated each other on many occasions with unbelievable savagery. Not just on an individual level, but also in an organised fashion. Human history contains numerous examples of one population group deciding that another simply needed to be eliminated. Their reasons varied from the religious: _'These people worship false gods; their heresy must be eradicated'_, through greed: '_These people have something, land or other resources, that we want; we need to get rid of them', _to fear: _'We need to destroy them before they destroy us.'  
_While wars between different species can often be extremely brutal (such as the Rachni Wars and the Krogan Rebellions), few other species have practised genocide amongst themselves on this scale. Only two exceptions come to mind: the krogan and, possibly, the drell during their final conflicts over the dwindling resources of their planet. However, in those cases, the actual act of exterminating a population group seems to be either simply a side-effect of particularly savage warfare (as in the case of the krogan) or driven by desperation (as in the case of the drell). Among humans, by contrast, the decision was often taken calmly and deliberately.  
As humanity moved into the industrial age, it became easier to kill large numbers of people in an efficient fashion. In fact, at least one government is known to have set up an industrial process for the sole purpose of exterminating certain population groups.

Even in those cases where the extermination of the enemy was not a stated goal, officers and soldiers often behaved in appalling fashion. Enemy soldiers who had surrendered, (and whose surrender had been accepted!) were on many occasions subjected to torture (either for information or simply as a form of entertainment), worked to death in labour camps, starved to death, or simply executed. Of course, this is hardly a uniquely human trait. Krogan rarely take prisoners, and when they do, the prisoners will usually end up wishing they had been killed immediately. The Batarian Hegemony (Yes, I will state this publicly) is hardly known for its good treatment of either prisoners or occupied populations and we ourselves are certainly no strangers to this kind of behaviour. What is unique, is the human response.

* * *

**Historical Context (III: The human solution)**

At the end of their Second World War, humans faced a disastrous situation. Within half a century (two human generations) they had fought two planet-spanning wars, as well as numerous local conflicts, with a combined death toll that can only be guessed but is usually estimated to be well above 100 million. They had also reduced many cities to rubble and destroyed a significant amount of their industrial capacity. Astonishingly, the conflict was still not resolved. Although the belligerents of the Second World War would never fight each other again, the victors, allies only out of necessity, now turned on each other. Within a short period of time, the planet was once again split into two factions, each of which had acquired the necessary nuclear arsenal to wipe the other out completely.

It is against this background that the current human legal code of warfare was developed. At the end of their Second World War, large-scale trials were held and many of the people responsible for the atrocities were punished, either by imprisonment or death. (Though it should be noted that it was only the losing side that was punished.) Charges included, but were not limited to, instigating the start of the war (The first time in human history that it was considered a crime to start a war); targeting population centres; torture and execution of enemy soldiers after taking them prisoner; torture and execution of civilians in occupied areas. Finally, many trials pertained to an event known to humans as 'The Holocaust', a series of action in which a particular population group, selected based on their religion, was targeted for extermination.  
Trials such as this, and the laws governing them, seem to be a typical human concept, which has very little equivalent among other species. Although there are rules among the people of the citadel as to how soldiers are to conduct themselves, these typically take the form of an internal code of conduct among a military organisation, as is the case for the Hierarchy, not a law that is imposed on them from the outside. The main exception to this is the rule against nuclear bombardment of garden worlds, even though that was born more from practical considerations than any attempt to limit casualties.

The resulting laws, as conceived and practised among humans, are complicated, convoluted, and in many cases contradictory. It would be beyond the scope of this summary to discuss them all, but the one that stands out is the concept that 'obeying orders' is not an acceptable defence. This seems contradictory. After all, obedience is the cornerstone of every military organisation and it seems unfair to punish a soldier for doing what he has been taught to do throughout his service: obey. However, there is a reason for this law. Humans determined that no law, or threat of punishment, could deter a senior officer or politician from giving the order to commit an atrocity if they were so inclined. Such people would almost certainly consider themselves to be above the law and would be convinced that they could get away with their actions. However, they would still need others to carry out their orders. By holding those people accountable as well, humans hoped to stop the order from becoming a reality. After all, it takes only one madman to give insane orders, but it takes many people to carry them out. The hope is that among these people sanity will prevail if they know they may face punishment for their actions.

Other laws, which pertain to the behaviour of nations rather than individuals, sought to restrict the scope of future conflict, ensuring that any future war would be a form of limited warfare, rather than total war. These laws include a prohibition on the first-use of nuclear weapons as well as an agreement that population centres can not be used as targets. All this seems strange and impractical to us. After all, it means that military organisations would deliberately handicap themselves before going into battle, but we should remember that the humans were desperate. They were faced with the very real possibility of a third global conflict, which would almost certainly end in a nuclear exchange that would have turned their planet into a second Tuchanka.

* * *

**Historical Context (IV: The end result)**

The event that humans feared never happened. Although they would continue to fight many local wars, no Third World War occurred. Nor did they ever release another nuclear weapon against a planetary target. As time went on, they further enlarged their 'laws of war' and made several attempts to create organisations to enforce them, albeit with indifferent results. Still, the very fact of their continued survival seems to argue in favour of their approach. However, we have to ask ourselves: was it the result of their laws, or did other factors change the course of history?

Personally, I believe it is the latter. The main reason that no large nuclear exchange occurred is that the humans were lucky. Their second World War ended with only two nuclear explosions. Enough to demonstrate their devastating potential, but not enough to cause catastrophic damage to the planet. This small example of the dangers of any future war would prey on the minds of humans afterwards. As the number of nuclear weapons increased they moved into a situation where nuclear war became unwinnable. Any conflict would end with the destruction of both sides. This stalemate, known to humans as mutually assured destruction, or MAD (and, yes, for those of you that understand the human language, they are fully aware of the irony of the secondary meaning of that acronym), stopped them from taking any action that would lead to such a war.  
Instead, they would fight so-called proxy wars, where local nations engaged each other with weapons supplied by the major power blocks. It is true, that these wars were of a limited nature, but I doubt that this was the result of any legal restriction. Instead, it seems more likely that human political and military thinking had caught up with the reality of the industrial era and come to the conclusion that their weaponry had reached a level where they should either not fight at all, or keep the fighting below a certain level. Still, in many of these wars, atrocities occurred on both large and small scales. This has led me to believe that it was the nature of the people involved, rather than any threat of legal punishment, that determined how these wars were conducted.

Obviously, the decision to reduce the level of fighting differs from the conclusions that we as turians reached, but that does not necessarily make it a wrong one. The main argument against the human fashion of limited warfare is, of course, that it tends to be inconclusive, and only lead to new wars. This is certainly true, and in many cases, human nations would repeatedly fight each other without resolving their differences; but we also have to remember that when the humans engaged in total war, it did not guarantee an end to conflict either.

In the end, for whatever reasons, the human solution seems to have worked for them. Historical and archaeological research shows us that a species typically manages to become at least somewhat united at an early stage in its industrial development, or ends up destroying its own planet before it discovers interstellar travel. Humanity, despite the many bitter divides in its society, managed to contain the violence long enough to find a way out of its home system. By then the worst danger to their species had passed because access to other worlds decreased the risk of total annihilation. In the decades that followed, human governments would actively encourage the more extreme elements of their societies to move off-world to colonies where they could live as they pleased. This sped up the colonisation process and reduced tensions on their homeworld. Many of these colonies still exist and are by and large left alone as long as they cooperate with the (limited) oversight of the United Systems and don't try to force their way of life on others. Armed conflict still occurred on many occasions (and occurs to this day) but its nature changed from open warfare to outbreaks of guerrilla war and urban terrorism, which were quite often fought on a level more reminiscent of law-enforcement than of actual military campaigns.

* * *

**The case of general Desolas Arterius**

During the relay 314 incident, general Arterius ordered the bombardment of human population centres on numerous occasions. At first, this was simply as a tactical measure when human soldiers took shelter in the buildings of their capital city. Later, after the surrender, a number of small human villages were destroyed in retaliation for attacks by human soldiers who remained still at large. After the conflict ended, general Arterius, by then a prisoner, was put on trial for these actions, found guilty, and executed. It should be noted, that, during the trial, a human officer acting in his defence pointed out that human soldiers had turned the city of Shanxi into an acceptable target by using the buildings for cover and that any deaths of non-combatants were regrettable, -but legally acceptable- consequences of this situation. This argument was accepted by the court and general Arterius was not convicted for these deaths. However, the same argument could not be applied to the destruction of the villages, as there was no proof of the presence of human soldiers in the villages at the time of the bombardment. The court did not consider the need for retaliation or its use as a deterrent a justification.

It is of particular interest to note that part of the charges against general Arterius was that he_ 'Needlessly escalated the conflict by attacking civilian targets'. _This charge was upheld. The argument behind this charge was that, by attacking human population centres, general Arterius opened the way for the United Systems Military to do the same. This is a point that cannot be emphasised enough. While destroying a village in retaliation for an attack on turian soldiers was not considered acceptable, human legal theory states that it would have been acceptable for them to destroy a turian population centre in exchange for the destruction of one of theirs. Hypocrisy? Actually, it is not. It is here that we find the dividing line between limited warfare and total war as seen by humans.  
Up to this moment, humans considered themselves to be engaged in a limited war. To them, this was the natural state of affairs, even though that was never officially stated and certainly not something that they and the Hierarchy had ever agreed on. By destroying population centres, general Arterius changed the rules and effectively fired the first shot in the kind of conflict that humans have, for centuries, been desperate to avoid: total war.

Of course, general Arterius never realized any of this. He was fighting the way the Hierarchy has always fought, with all available means. Any restrictions on the use of weapons or the choice of targets have always been dictated by practical concerns, such as the desire to preserve a valuable installation, rather than destroying it. But in human terms, he had broken a rule, which from their point of view is absolutely necessary to keep warfare from spilling out of control. Even though no human alive today has any experienced such a war, or perhaps even because of that fact, any violation of these rules triggered an instinctive human response.

Whether they would have retaliated in kind is something we shall never know and human officials refuse to comment as to whether such plans had been made. From my understanding of human history, as well as human nature in general, I suspect that such plans did, and do exist. Humans enjoy to engage in speculation and tend to make up plans for even the most unlikely contingencies. I suspect that they had considered the possibility of striking our own cities, even before general Arterius ordered the first orbital bombardment. Once he had done so, I am sure they considered the possibility of a counter strike. Having reviewed imagery of the destruction they unleashed on their homeworld, even with relatively primitive weapons, I think we should be glad the war ended when it did, before human restraint was put to the test.

* * *

**Conclusion**

How should we proceed from here? Is there any merit to the human legal system as applied to warfare? The most we can say at this point is that, although severely flawed, the human system seems to have worked for them, but as I have stated before, this seems to have been due mainly to circumstances other than the application of a legal code. Furthermore, the prohibitions enforced by human law can only work if both sides hold to the same theory, as the humans themselves experienced when general Arterius ordered his retaliation strikes. He never understood that he was violating a fundamental taboo, nor did the soldiers who obeyed his orders, negating the practical considerations that drove the humans to create these laws.  
Applying the laws that aided humanity in surviving long enough to achieve interstellar travel to ourselves or any other species seems pointless. Human laws may have worked for them when they were only dealing with each other. In a universe that contains many different species, each with their own culture, laws and preconceptions, I believe the humans would be well advised to take a second look at their system and perhaps adapt it to the new reality in which they find themselves.

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**A/N As always with these chapters, the above is written from the perspective of an alien observer. It is certainly not the absolute truth nor do I necessarily agree with everything. I'm not looking to get into an argument as to whether MAD truly kept the peace during the cold war. Neither do I want to discuss historical cases of warcrimes, whether retaliation strikes are acceptable, or if the Intrnational Court of Justice is actually a good thing. This is simply what I think an alien researcher would find when looking into 20th century history.**

**Also, before anybody points out that jews were not the only population group sent to concentration camps, yes, I'm fully aware that there were criteria other than religion (Romany were also targeted, as were political dissidents and homosexuals). Again, not trying to start an argument on such an emotional subject. This is written from the perspective of an alien researcher whose view on human history will be inherently limited and the jews stand out as being the largest population group among the victims. Also, the immediate post-war trials, which is what this person is interested in, focussed primarily on the treatment of jews. In fact, in an absolutely appalling example, many homosexuals who had been sent to the camps were not liberated at all, but kept imprisoned to sit out their sentences, albeit under better circumstances.  
**

**The idea that humans go to war over relatively minor issues depends on point of view. I am trying to come up with a reason that turians managed to survive despite their penchant for fighting wars by all means available. My explanation is that they were relatively slow to go to war, compared to us, but once they started they would go all-out. I would also imagine that once a war appeared lost turians would be willing to surrender unconditionally, exactly because they knew that failure to do so would result in total destruction.  
**

**For the Punic wars, and in particular the different attitudes toward the goal of the war, I am paraphrasing from 'The Fall of Carthage: The Punic Wars 265-146BC' by Adrian Goldsworthy.**

**For the starting date of WW2: it depends if you start with the Japanese invasion of China, or with the German invasion of Poland. Most people use the latter, but the former can certainly be argued.**


	11. USCIO report: Batarian slave trade

**I own neither Mass Effect, nor the AvP franchise**

* * *

**United Systems Central Intelligence Organisation**

**to: J. Harper, Director of Operations**

Following the recent attack on Mindoir, we have analyzed the Batarian Hegemony's attitude and practices regarding the use of non-batarian slaves. This has led us to a fundamental question: Why do they continue with these abductions despite the detrimental effect on their relationships to the rest of Citadel Space? Why does the batarian government not take steps to put an end to this practice instead of actively colluding with the raiders while at the same time beligerently defending slavery as part of their 'cultural heritage'. At first glance, it would seem that it simply isn't worth it. Especially, because they could save themselves a lot of trouble by restricting slavery to batarians exclusively and making at least a token attempt at taking down anyone who tries to abduct a non-batarian. While other species would still not approve it would not generate nearly the level of hostility they are currently experiencing.

We have considered the Following options:

**I) Their economy relies on these slaves as a pool of forced manual labour**

We can dismiss this possibility. To make any difference to an economy the scale of the Hegemony, they would have to maintain at hundreds of millions of non-batarian slaves. This is highly unlikely, because of A) the inherent risk of large-scale slave-revolts; B) the loss of that many citizens would force the other species to act; and C) It would put their own lower classes out of work. Human societies that operated this way typically did so because they did not want to do the work (irrelevant in this case because lower class batarians are slaves themselves) or because they did not have the required workforce themselves, such as the European colonial empires in the 17th and 18th century, as well as the southern United States during the 18th and 19th century. Clearly, this is not the case for the Hegemony. Therefore, importing large numbers of non-batarian workers, whether as slaves or not, makes no sense. We considered the possibility that they are running 'sweatshops' to produce cheap goods for other species, but this is not the case. In fact, the element zero based economy of the Citadel Species contains very few 'cheap' goods. Consumer electronics, for example, are far more expensive than those that we ourselves produce. This, combined with the stagnation of technological development in most of the galaxy, has resulted in an economy that produces few disposable goods but instead focusses on long-term use. Most products are designed to function for decades or even centuries and are therefore expensive. Sweatshops cannot deliver such products with any degree of reliability.

**II) They rely on slaves for more sophisticated work**

This seems more feasible. The Batarian cast system has created a society where few people receive an adequate education, which may lead to labour shortages in technical professions. This would also require a smaller number of slaves, making the practice more feasible. However, it comes with a major drawback: sabotage. A slave functioning as e.g. a mechanic, or a nurse, or any similar profession would have too many opportunities to use that position to harm his/her owners, especially because a slave may well decide that death is the preferred option and therefore be willing to take considerable risks to carry out a form of personal revenge. They may practice some form of mind control (there are stories of implants that regulate brain-activity) but this would almost certainly render the victim incapable of carrying out complicated tasks. Again, using human analogies, those societies that did rely on slaves for skilled labour (e.g. The Roman empire and the Ottoman empire) were part of a world where slavery was an accepted practice. Slaves might dislike their status, but would typically not disagree with the existence of the institution itself because they knew no other world. Furthermore, slaves in important positions were well treated and lived in considerable luxury. From what we know, this is NOT the case in the Hegemony.

**III) There is a large market for slaves for personal service**

At first glance, this seems the most likely reason why they keep taking non-batarian slaves. However, it does not explain the Hegemony's public stand. A) Having non-batarian servants may be a status symbol for rich Batarians, but there would be no need for slavery. Given a sufficiently high salary, they could just hire them as servants. B) When it comes to the specific use of slaves for sex, the market simply cannot be that large. Sex-drive is ultimately rooted in the need to reproduce. As such, it is unlikely that many batarians would feel desire for anyone other than other batarians or possibly asari. Of course, there will always be exceptions, but these are likely to be small in number. There would be no need for the Hegemony to risk the wrath of other governments over this. They could publicly outlaw the existence of non-batarian slaves, make a token effort to hunt down and punish the raiders, and then simply ignore it when it happens anyway. Many human governments have treated the problem of forced prostitution that way.

In short, there seems to be no pressing reason for the Hegemony to take its current stance, which is steadily eroding its position versus the other governments. Of course, sheer stubbornness might have led them to refuse to take action, as a signal of their independence, but it is hard to believe that they would have done so for centuries if there were no other motive.

**The explanation**

Based on these estimates we have come to the conclusion that our understanding of batarian slave raids was fundamentally flawed. This has led us to re-evaluate the existing data, as well as a renewed effort to infiltrate the Hegemony. As a result, we have uncovered two new, important facts:

**1) The Hegemony itself does NOT use non-batarian slaves in significant quantities.**

**2) The batarian government has made no effort at even a token action against the slave raiders for the simple reason that they cannot.**

The number of non-batarian slaves within the Hegemony is almost certainly quite small. They are to be found in the homes of a handful of the most powerful families, mainly as status symbols, or in specialised brothels that cater to wealthy people with peculiar tastes. As discussed under point III above, this is a limited market. By far the majority of the slaves are sold outside the Hegemony, mainly to colonies in the Terminus, which suffer from chronic labour shortages and/or are ruled by local warlords and pirate chiefs who simply like the idea of owning slaves, and who would have a personal use for slaves of the same species as themselves.

As to the reason for the Hegemony government's unwillingness to take action, this can be explained by the peculiar position of their military. From our most recent observations, we have come to the conclusion that the batarian military is far more independent than we had previously thought. For example, the so-called Batarian State Arms industry, their sole source of weaponry and one of the galaxy's largest arms manufacturing industries, is in fact not run by the state at all. It is under the direct control of the military, which is also the sole recipient of its profits. These, in turn, are used to fund the military. This is not a unique state of affairs. There are several examples of nations in human history where a military organisation operated this way, almost forming a state within a state.  
The result of this is that the batarian government has very little direct control over the military, which has caused wide-spread corruption. Senior officers, who are effectively generating their own income, tend to pocket large amounts of it instead of spending it on maintenance and training as they should. From our point of view, this is both good and bad news. The good news is that the batarian military is almost certainly even less effective than we had previously estimated. The bad news is that local commanders tend to use their assets to generate additional income, including piracy and slave raids. The slaves taken during these raids are then sold to traders who transport them into the terminus systems.

This leaves the Hegemony in an impossible position. They cannot admit to what is happening without admitting that they have no control over their own military. Moreover, they are dependent on the military for maintaining control over their population and cannot publicly disown them. Therefore, they have chosen to take a somewhat schizophrenic position: On the one hand, they deny that anyone related to the government is involved with the raids so as not to show their own weakness or antagonize their officer corps. On the other hand, they keep defending the institution of slavery, at least partially to maintain their internal status-quo and to stop any attempt by other species to interfere. Such interference would inevitably expose the current situation.

We cannot be sure to what extent the other species are aware of this situation. It would seem unlikely that they are completely oblivious, especially the salarian STG, with its reputation for espionage. However, the alien governments seem to be extremely reluctant to face unpleasant truths. If the batarian issues with their own military became public knowledge, public opinion among the other species would almost certainly force the Citadel Council (or rather the turian Hierarchy) to act. This, in turn, would lead to open warfare, and upset the current status quo.

**To conclude:**

In the event that the United Systems Military wishes to mount a counter attack against these raiders, they should consider the following:

1) Most captives will eventually be moved outside batarian territory, making a rescue attempt more feasible. However, they would soon afterward be scattered over the Terminus.

2) The people transporting the captives once outside batarian space are almost certainly not the actual raiders. Neither will they necessarily be batarians.

3) Any attempt to strike at the raiders directly will almost certainly result in a direct confrontation with batarian (para-)military forces, even if they are not acknowledged as such and the deaths of members of leading batarian families, which may have severe repercussions.

4) Though this is highly speculative, but the current position of the Hegemony within Citadel space seems increasingly precarious. Further study is necessary, but it seems likely that neither the Council nor the respective governments would be eager to intercede on behalf of the Hegemony, as long as we don't push them into doing so.

**!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!-!**

**I find the Batarian slavery issue rather difficult. I suspect Bioware came up with it to create the kind of villain everyone loves to hate. Unfortunately, once you think about it, it gets rather complicated.  
Historically, slave-owning societies came in two forms: those where slaves were a very distinct, separate group (like in the southern US and European colonial empires) and those where slaves were simply a part of society, completely interwoven with the free population (e.g. the roman republic). For the batarians the latter form would be difficult because it requires that everyone, including the slaves themselves, accepts slavery as normal. While batarian slaves (effectively their lowest cast) might accept that slavery is normal, captured members of other species are unlikely to do so, so they would almost certainly form a group that is kept separate from Batarian society as a whole, but what exactly would they be doing? Hence this report. Plus it sets up my next story.  
**


End file.
